North Carolina’s coast isn’t what it used to be.
The sound of seagulls competes with the grind of construction. Property values are soaring. The water is rising.
“It means we’ve got some very difficult choices to make in the not-to-distant future because we can’t defend everything,” Charles Peterson, a biologist with the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences, said of the challenges presented by rising water levels.
Coastal Brunswick County has become the 14th fastest growing county in the country, and, while slowing, Carolina Beach issued more building permits in the past five years than during the previous two decades combined.
Just to the north, the average selling price of homes in Wrightsville Beach has nearly tripled since 2001.
A less obvious change, though one with potentially huge ramifications, is the rise in water levels.
Topics North Carolina
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